Aging is universal. Yet few topics generate more anxiety, more spending, and more cultural debate. Today, discussions about aging feel more charged than ever before. Moreover, the pressure to look young now extends far beyond older generations. So, what does aging well truly mean? A landmark London art exhibition dares to ask — and the answers are more complex than any wrinkle cream promises.
The Modern Obsession with Anti-Aging
Bryan Johnson and the $2 Million Pursuit of Youth
Few people embody today’s anti-aging obsession more vividly than American tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. He reportedly spends around $2 million per year on anti-aging treatments. His daily routine includes hours in the gym, intermittent fasting, red light therapy, and over 100 supplements. Furthermore, he once coordinated trigenerational blood transfusions — injecting his teenage son’s plasma and passing his own to his 70-year-old father. By 2025, Johnson claimed to have slowed his biological aging rate so dramatically that he marks a birthday only every 19 months.
His mission sounds extreme. However, the obsession itself is not new. Humanity has chased youth for centuries — and today’s culture has simply given that chase a more expensive wardrobe.
“The Coming of Age” Exhibition in London
Five Centuries of Growing Older, on Display
London’s Wellcome Collection now hosts a remarkable exhibition titled “The Coming of Age.” Curator Shamita Sharmacharja built the show to span five centuries. It brings together more than 120 artworks, objects, and research projects that explore the reality of growing older. Notably, the exhibition runs from March 26 to November 29, 2026.
The range of objects is striking. Visitors encounter 19th-century anti-aging pills alongside Charles Darwin’s walking stick. Additionally, they find bold nude self-portraits by then-sexagenarian British photographer John Coplans, and clips from the Netflix documentary about Bryan Johnson playing on a loop near a 1970s cryogenics flask.
Sharmacharja recalls a consistent reaction when she told people she was working on an aging-themed show. People sighed. They slumped their shoulders. Many replied with resigned acceptance that aging “comes for us all.” That response itself became part of her curatorial focus — she wanted to explore where our cultural attitudes toward aging come from.
What Aging Well Means to Different People
No Single Definition Exists
Aging well, it turns out, means something different to everyone. For some, the goal is measurable and physical — a smooth forehead, few wrinkles, and a low biological age. For others, self-acceptance, independence, and dignity matter far more than appearances. Meanwhile, testimonies gathered by the Centre for Ageing Better and displayed in the exhibition reveal a third perspective entirely. Many people simply define aging well as financial security — a life with less worry and more rest.
This range shows just how personal aging really is. There is no universal benchmark. Consequently, any single cultural narrative around aging risks excluding the vast majority of lived experiences.
Rising Life Expectancy and Its Hidden Challenges
A Longer Life Does Not Guarantee a Better One
Life expectancy today sits higher than at any other point in history. One statistic highlighted in the exhibition notes that one in ten children in the UK today may live beyond 100. This is, on the surface, remarkable news. Yet it also raises difficult questions.
A longer life does not automatically mean a happier or healthier one. Financial means drastically shape both how quickly people age and the quality of life they experience along the way. Furthermore, the exhibition notes that access to health, stability, and care remains deeply uneven. Therefore, asking “who gets to age well?” is also a question about economic and social inequality.
Discussions about aging have never felt more urgent. Wrinkles, sun spots, and sagging skin now face intense cultural demonization. Teenagers — decades away from experiencing these changes — already fear them. Similarly, men, once largely exempt from anti-aging beauty pressures, increasingly find themselves targeted. Facelifts, once common only among those over 60, now attract patients under 40 and even under 30. A new cultural ideal has emerged: the “forever 35” face.
Art That Captures the Reality of Growing Older
Honest Portrayals Beyond Beauty Standards
Sharmacharja designed the exhibition to strike a careful balance. She wanted to challenge ageism without dismissing the genuine anxiety of mid-life, illness, or caring responsibilities. Several artworks in the show achieve this with quiet power.
Photographer Elinor Carucci’s series Midlife captures the first small signs of aging — including a single self-portrait documenting the discovery of an early grey hair. Elsewhere, British-Portuguese artist Paula Rego’s two self-portraits from 2017 show her howling through bold pastel strokes. After a serious fall at 81, Rego found expression and even joy in recreating her bruised face on paper. As she put it: “I didn’t like the fall. But the self-portraits I liked doing. I had something to show.”
These works remind viewers that growing older holds space for grief, humor, defiance, and creativity — often all at once.
Why Our Stories About Aging Matter Most
The Narratives We Tell Shape the Lives We Live
After completing her research for the show, Sharmacharja emerged with a more realistic and nuanced view of aging. She observed that every stage of life carries both enrichment and constraint — shaped largely by the stories society tells about it. Change the story, and you begin to change the experience.
This insight sits at the heart of the exhibition. Rather than offering simple solutions or anti-aging advice, it invites visitors to examine the assumptions they carry. After all, the fear of aging is itself a cultural product — one that artists, thinkers, and ordinary people have both reflected and resisted across centuries.
Conclusion: Rethinking How We Grow Older
Aging is not a problem to solve. It is a human experience to navigate. “The Coming of Age” at London’s Wellcome Collection makes this argument with depth, humor, and compassion. It challenges the dominant narrative that growing older is only loss — and offers something more honest in return. Moreover, it asks us to reconsider who benefits from our collective fear of aging, and who pays the price.
Ultimately, aging well may have less to do with supplements or smooth skin, and far more to do with dignity, financial security, honest self-acceptance, and the freedom to define growing older on one’s own terms.
